🚀 go-pugleaf

>Each SS400 = 22 MIPS   =>   0.44 MIPS/user
>Say the Sequent had 30 486 processors rated at 14 MIPS each 
>i.e. 30*14  = 420 MIPS =>   0.84 MIPS/user

>>So it look's like the dozen Suns would give you *more* power per user
>>than a single Sequent.

>So it looks like the more power theory is out.  Besides that, MIPS is not
>the only thing users need.  Are you going to duplicate the disks
>on 12 suns or have a file server and use NFS through the network?
>administer 12 suns vs 1 machine?  Waste memory, swap, CPU
>and other resources for 12 OSs vs one.

>Also there are things other than users which use the machines.
>Most sequents are used for applications, datebases and services server.  It
>would be hard to split a large service like news across 12 Suns,
>or spread your database across 12 suns and so on.

>Basicaly what it comes down to is that you can't compare Suns and Sequents,
>they are designed and made for different purposes.

I simply couldn't resist this thread of interest. Both of you have
very valid points, but seem to neglect the most important
consideration all of us base our decisions on - $$$$$$$.

Let's say I buy 12 Sparcserver 470's with single SCSI disk at our
academic price of $36K each. Let's make them 2 gigabytes systems by
putting another 1.3 gigs of disk on at $4K, or maybe a single disk and
more memory. A nice round figure of $40K / machine. 12 of them is
$480K. Now even with my great discount at Sequent (a secret of
course), it is unlikely that I will be able to get a 20 processor
S2000 (roughly the same aggregate MIPS as 12 SS470's) with 12 gigs of
disk space and plenty of memory for $480K.

We have many Sequent machines here and like them very much. Recent
price / performance ratios have made distributed environments much
more acceptable again. The point that we are comparing apples and
oranges is well taken.  Limited $$$ however, always assists in the
decisions we need to make.

*Sun and Sequent sales execs take note - the above is an example. Save
your phone calls :-)

>>Needless to say these are my views not Sun's...
>Needless to say these are my views not OSU's...
Needless to say these are my views not Purdue's...

Steve Hare	    Research Facilities Manager
Purdue University	   Computer Sciences Department
hare@cs.purdue.edu  (ARPA) 	...!purdue!hare  (UUCP)
317-494-7820